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Project Updates for collection: Bicycle Related Projects

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  1. Weekly Update: Slow week; Bike sales; Employment at CBC; Bike registration

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Slow-ish week on the whole. Some rainy weather kept it quiet for a day or two. We’re holding steady with 20 – 25 bikes for sale as we’ve been able to keep up with the pace of sales. We got two donations late on Friday, one of which had nearly nothing wrong with it, and thusly was fixed up and on the sales floor within an hour.

    We had a few visitors express interest in employment at the Bike Center so I will follow up with them this week to help bolster our roster.

    Sarthak came by on Friday and explained a great time-saver for doing on-the-spot 529 bike registrations. This will be a great help in about a month when we’re deluged with incoming students.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 20
    Sales: $450.50
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $280
    Tires/tubes: 5 for $21

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  2. Weekly Update: Build-a-Bike; New Hire at CBC

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Bit of a busy week in the books. Still getting regular and steady donations that are a challenge to keep on top of, but it is much preferable to NOT having any donations.

    I had a new hire start on Friday, who did a great job on his first day, considering it was a bit of a trial by fire with how busy we were. He’ll be a welcome addition around here!

    We had our first completed Build-a-Bike since the pandemic, which was also our first semi-fixed B-a-B. I think the person took 2-3 days, or 8-12 hours of labor to finish the bike. 

    A planning meeting for Bike Month is on the calendar for this week. Other than that, it is business as usual.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 23
    Sales: $787.10
    Bikes (refurb): $390
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tires/tubes: 14 for $67

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  3. Summary: F&S Space Management Plan 2021-2030

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Driving on Campus

    The F&S Space Management Plan 2021 – 2030 documents how space is used on campus. F&S works with the Office of the Provost and other campus units and committees to manage and improve the use of space on campus, which occupies over 23 million gross square feet of facilities in more than 750 owned and leased buildings.

    Properly managing the space is essential, as more than 57,000 people enrolled or employed by the university live and learn on campus. Additionally, the plan notes that “people enrolled or employed on campus has been steadily increasing since 2000, growing by over 4% from 2017 to 2018 alone.”

    Over the past decade, balancing campus growth and sustainability goals of the Net Zero Space Growth policy, part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), has required an innovative approach to analyzing campus density and opportunities for greater square footage efficiency. In-depth planning and procedures have included renovating existing space, improving utilization of existing space, and increasing the ability to share space and resources between units and across campus. The modest change to the campus footprint in recent years, despite additional enrollment, demonstrates the value of these actions.

    “With enormous capital investments required to build, operate, and maintain our campus infrastructure, space is a critical asset that must be managed effectively to ensure the continued success of our university,” the plan reads. Net Zero Space Growth is essential to the university achieving strategic goals and is a crucial challenge of the ongoing project planning efforts in F&S Capital Programs.

  4. New Veo Dashboard

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike Share with Veo

    The Midwest Regional manager of Veo, Ben Thomas, informed Sarthak that there is a new updated Veo dashboard for UIUC. This new dashboard can be found in Veo's Tablaeu environment.

  5. Archived description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts

    The MCORE project requires the CUUATS partners to monitor the pedestrian and bicycle counts following the completion of the project. This requirement is to understand the increased waking and bicycling activities at the twelve predetermined corridors. CCRPC collected pedestian and cycling counts at these locations before the MCORE project. These twelve corridors are listed in this project update.

    The University has identified other locations on campus to add pedestrian/bicycle counters as well, other than these twelve MCORE corridors. In March 2020, the first Eco-Counter pedestrian/bicycle counter was installed at the Illini Union location on Green Street. The University is also working with Obama Energy to get IntelliStreet light poles for pedestrian/bicycle count collection.

  6. Archived description: MCORE porject

    Associated Project(s): 
    Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project (MCORE)

    The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), City of Champaign, City of Urbana, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are partnering to improve mobility in our communities core through a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant. The $35M MCORE Project is unprecedented in our community’s history and will have a transformative impact.

    MCORE Project construction is anticipated to start in September of 2016 and continue into 2019, covering five separate project areas to improve key urban transportation corridors.

    Enhances Mobility Choices


    The goal of MCORE is to provide a balance between all modes of transportation. Transportation choices address pedestrian access routes, bicycle lanes, transit efficiency and vehicle flow; and reduce potential conflict areas.

    Improves Infrastructure


    MCORE will improve the condition of the existing pavement and bring the streets of these core transit corridors into a state of good repair while redesigning them into complete streets to accommodate all users.

    Promotes Sustainability


    MCORE will encourage sustainable development that is located and designed to be compact and contiguous to existing development and have limited environmental impact; provide streetscape improvements for an enriched built environment, sense of place, and quality of life; emphasize all modes of transportation while decreasing the use of single occupancy vehicles, thereby reducing congestion, traffic hazards, and carbon emissions.

    Improves Critical Linkages


    The completion of the MCORE Project will provide better connections between the downtown centers of Champaign and Urbana, the university, the area’s major employers, health, and social service organizations.

  7. Archived background

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus

    Between August 4, 2011 and March 9, 2016, there were 373 bicycle thefts reported to the University of Illinois Police Department (UIPD).  This number is beleived to be a low estimate, due to under-reporting, and because some bike thefts on campus may have been reported to the local Champaign or Urbana city Police Departments. 

    That is an average of 82 reported bicycle thefts a year!

    A map of these theft locations can be found here:

     

     

     

    Top areas of bike theft from August 2011-September 2013 (two years):
    Area Number of Bikes Stolen
    1010-12 W Illinois (ISR) 15
    201 N Goodwin Av (Seibel Center) 15
    College Court Area (PAR/FAR) 10
    405 N Mathews (Beckman) 8
    1005 W Gregory Dr (Allen) 7
    1005 S Lincoln Av (LAR) 6
    205 N Mathews (Newmark) 6
    1110 W Green Street (Daniels Hall) 5
    1401 W Green St (Illini Union) 5

    Source: UIPD 9/17/13

  8. Addition to the original description: Keys to reducing bicycle theft

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus

    Keys to reducing bicycle theft:

    1. Never leave your bicycle unlocked!
    2. Always lock your bicycle to a bicycle rack! Learn how to properly lock your bicycle Lock Your Bike Right (LYBR) video from 2019.
    3. Register your bicycle and install the registration sticker (529 Shield) to your bicycle. Learn more at Bike at Illinois' Register Your Bike page or go.illinois.edu/mybike
    4. Report a bike theft to UIPD immediately at (217) 333-1216.

  9. Conclusion; Lessons learned; Issues encountered

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike Shelter at Flagg Hall

    The Bike Shelter was installed North of the Flagg Hall in June 2021. The structure dimensions are 14' x 63' with 6.5' height on one side and 8' on the other side. The bike shelter utilizes Side Stage (vertical) bike racks and can accommodate up to 73 bicycles. Due to manufacturing error, the structure is 2' short and because of this, one side (south side wall) of this bike shelter cannot accommodate bicycles on the top tier. The top tier on this side of the bike shelter will be blocked off using signs. The original capacity of this bike shelter was 96.

    There were several issues with this project:

    1. miscommunications between the vendor and the University staff
    2. lack of communication between the university staff and the Architecture Review Committee (ARC), which resulted in the purchase of a very large structure and, subsequently, change in the desired location for this structure
    3. staff change during the project
    4. lack of proper records and details about the project by the university staff in the beginning
    5. covid-19 pandemic resulted in some delay in this project as well
    6. miscommunications between the vendor and their manufacturers and engineering staff - which resulted in the delivery of wrong components and items of the structure. The structural design as reviewed and approved by the University was not what we received and the vendor did not rectify the error.
    7. missing components from the structure - there were several missing parts that the University had to cover (see the invoice for missing hardware). The University had to cover the cost of new Plexiglass as well as the missing roofing.
    8. descrepencies between the structural design, installation instructions, and the final delivery caused many more issues
      1. the structure was overall 2' shorter, i.e. the south wall of the bike shelter was supposed to be 8.5' high and the north was supposed to be 10' high, however, the after the construction, south wall and north wall came to be 6' and 8.5' high respectively. This descrepency caused the top tier of the south wall to be unusable.
      2. the original design called for Double-Docker style of bike racks, however, they had to be replaced with the Side Stage (vertical) bike racks
    9. vendor was sent the invoice for missing hardware, however, the vendor has not responded
    10. Awful customer support from the vendor

    There were issues at every stage of this project, which was not helped with the non-cooperative customer support at Ground Control Systems. Learn more about the installation cost using the AiM account for this project: 6043.

  10. Archived description: Bike Shelter at Flagg Hall

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike Shelter at Flagg Hall

    This Bike Shelter is 14' x 63', and it can accommodate up to 84 bicycles in two tiers. It was purchased from Ground Control Systems in 2018, and was initially planned to be installed to the West of Main Library. However, due to contruction conflicts, the location had to be changed. In 2019, several locations were identified and examined, for example, the Psychology Building and North of Henry Aministration Building (HAB). The HAB location was more suitable since it was a high demand area, however, the Bike Shelter was too big for the location, and the Architecture Review Committee (ARC) denied the location, citing the conflict of this structure with beautification of the main Quad.

    In November 2019, North of Flagg Hall was identified as the new location for the bike shelter and it was approved by ARC. The bike shelter is expected to be installed and ready to use by the end of November 2020.

  11. Student Code update approval: §2-605 Operation of Bicycles

    Associated Project(s): 
    Enforcement for Safe Cycling
    University Bicycle Ordinance
    Bike at Illinois Website and Campaign

    The Conference of Conduct Governance (CCG) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has approved the changes proposed to the §2-605 Operation of Bicycles section of the Student Code during their June 2021 meeting. The Student Code will be updated with the following information over the summer 2021 in digital and printed format.

    Please see attached the previous version of this section versus the updated information.

    Attached Files: 

  12. Update on "Draft Bicycle Crash Reporting Form Created"

    Associated Project(s): 
    Improve Reporting and Metrics for Bicycles

    From: Prasad, Sarthak

    To: DeLorenzo, Stacey; White, Morgan

    Recipients: sdeloren at illinois.edu; mbwhite at illinois.edu

     

    Hi Stacey and Morgan,

     

    I was just looking at the Improve Reporting and Metrics for Bicycles project, and I saw a project update from 2013 by Amelia Neptune “Draft Bicycle Crash Reporting Form Created”. Does either of you remember if this form was actually made public or if there was any progress made on it?

     

    I think this is a very neat way to report a bicycle crash and could be very important. Please let me know if there is a final form. If not, I would like to revisit this effort.

     

    Thank you,
    Sarthak  

     

    Sarthak Prasad

    Sustainable Transportation Assistant

    Facilities & Services

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Phone: 217-300-9575

    Email: sprasad9 at illinois.edu

  13. Weekly Update: Bike donations; Kid's bike giveaway on July 17

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    All, Last week we got inundated with donations. I counted 8 bikes donated on Friday alone. That doesn’t include wheels, tires, and parts that we received as well. We’ve got nearly half a dozen bikes in the queue that once on the sales floor will free up some space for more donations.

    Our friends at TBP are hosting another Kids’ Bike Giveaway event for July 17th. We have a dozen or so bikes we’ll be able to contribute to that event. That’ll clear up some more space, too.  

    This week I hope to be able to start a new student worker.

    The numbers:

    Visitors:
    Sales: $103.75
    Tire/tubes: 4 for $31

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  15. Weekly Update: BTWD and LTN dates finalized

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    All, Steadily picking up around here. Had to pull out the folding stands on a couple occasions. Got a new hire in the works. Dates are set for Light The Night and Bike To Work Day for the fall. On Friday we had a volunteer working towards a membership, which was a welcome occurrence.

    This week is business as usual.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 20
    Sales: $1022.10
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Misc: $58.50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  16. Bike Registration Signs: 6/26 meeting between Sarthak and Shayna

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Registration

    In today’s meeting, we discussed the email we received from ARC about location and size of our signs. We are sticking with the size we discussed earlier, 12x18, and the idea is to mount them on posts. However, that will have an additional cost so the range of signs and posts we can produce will be around 10-15. That will be enough to target our priority locations. Before the next meeting with the ARC on Tuesday, we have to finalize a map with the specific locations pinpointed with images. This map will be created by Sarthak Prasad because he will be using the Bike Census information.

  17. Weekly Update: Shop cleaning; Bike donations; Juneteenth Freedom Ride; Moonlight rides

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Made some progress last week on the surplus of scrap bikes that we’d been accumulating. Shop is looking cleaner. Thanks to Todd for picking that up this weekend. We got seven bikes donated from Champaign Cycle, which I was able to pick up on the bike trailer. One of those bikes was a very quick fix and is on the floor ready to be sold. We replaced a damaged fork and now the bike is orange and blue—how appropriate!
    I interviewed and began the hiring process for a new student worker.
    The community bike ride season is well underway as there was a Juneteenth Freedom Ride last Saturday and two moonlight rides happening this week—one on Friday and one on Wednesday. We’ll talk that up to any visitors this week.

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 16
    Sales: $508
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $290
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Misc: 7 for $41

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  18. Weekly Update: Summer operations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Getting steadily busier! Sold some bikes, helped some people. A anecdotal metric for busyness: last week was the first time I had to repeatedly and firmly ask someone to leave after we’d closed up for the evening.

    Got the bike trailer fixed up so parts runs are easier. Had a planning meeting for LTN and BTWD last week. Looking forward to those events in the fall. Last week was a hot one, so I was especially appreciative of the A/C in the new bike center.

    Former student worker Eric brought in a trash bag stuffed full of old clothes to use for rags. We’ve been short on rags since the pandemic hit so this was much needed and much appreciated.

    Still short staffed but patrons have been very understanding and in a way that functions like pulling off the training wheels of learning bike repair. Silver linings!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 14
    Sales: $677.50
    Bikes: 3 for $490
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Misc: $56

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  20. Combined Bike to Work Day and Light the Night planning meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    Please watch the meeting recording here: Combined Bike to Work Day and Light the Night meeting on June 8, 2021.

    Also, attached are the meeting notes for Light the Night, agenda for this meeting, and a draft of the sponsorship/fundraising letter from Champaign County Bikes.

    Attached Files: 

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